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More than 5,000 Victorians attended American ex-president, Bill Clinton's book fair yesterday, if the Times-Colonist newspaper is to be believed. The gathered scions of the city heard the unindicted war criminal, and butt of countless lewd water-cooler comments praise Canada its rapine entanglement in Afghanistan, but urge we also further our [sic] efforts, and send more young men and women soldiers to that benighted nation to kill and die, and terrorize the too stupid to govern themselves in "our" interest locals.

"I know it is painful for you when you lose your soldiers there, but you are doing a good thing." - Praise for Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan from former Caesar, William Jefferson "Slick Willie" Clinton

Sadly, I couldn't afford to take the day off work, and fork out the
couple hundred bucks required to witness Bill delivering his pearls
before the rubes at the Save-On-Foods cultural mecca, but I was blessed
with the traffic snarl that followed; a mass exodus of Lexus' and
Benz's, and troops of Sunday best-dressed aspirants over-flowing
sidewalks and "don't walk" blinking intersections.

So these, thought I,
are the 28% of the populace willing to send the children of anonymous
fellow citizens to their spiritual, and in at least 44 cases, physical
doom in foreign adventures. They too must be among the estimated 71,763
Victorians still subscribing to the city's only daily, CanWest organ
the Times-Colonist.

Pennsylvania Republican senator Rick Santorum â€“ Golden Boy of the Christian Right, rabid homophobe, and Bush â€œyes-manâ€ â€“ was crushed in the 2006 election by a margin larger than anyone had expected.

Also on election day 2006, it was reported by the Associated Press that James Dobson, leader of the antigay Focus on the Family and close friend of disgraced Rev. Ted Haggard, â€œwill be one of the people overseeing counseling forâ€ Mr. Haggard. Later on November 7, Dobson bailed out: â€œI donâ€™t have the time.â€

And just after noon on November 8, 2006, time ran out for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in whom Bush had only recently expressed â€œtotal faith.â€ According to Bush, â€œAmerica is safer and the world more secureâ€ because of Donald Rumsfeldâ€™s leadership. If that were so, why the abrupt change following the election?

The entire world knew Rumsfeld was a disaster. Did â€œstay the courseâ€ GWB not just realize that? No one could be that stupid, not even George W. Could he?

Clearly Bush and the GOP are scrambling given Americansâ€™ overwhelmingly expression of dissatisfaction expressed at the ballot box. Dobson and the Christian Right are also running scared, as well they should. â€œHubrisâ€ and â€œdownfallâ€ are inextricably bound.
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They lost the House and the Senate in one night with one savage blow. Even the Confederate flag at Senator â€œMacakawâ€™sâ€ house was flying at half-mast. Suddenly the Reich that was â€œbuilt to last a thousand yearsâ€ had been reduced to small blocks of dusty-rubble extending from sea to shining sea. At the very epicenter of the twisted-iron and smoldering wreckage; was George W. Bush, President Hologram, the celluloid executive whose smirking puss had appeared daily on every American TV and in every American newspaper spreading the â€œgood newsâ€ of domestic repression and nonstop war. Now, here he was, once again, convening a news conference, dazed and ashen, propped up amid the scattered debris of a midterm massacre; his party left in utter ruins.

Ouch!

In a moment worthy of Shakespeare, the Fraudster-in-chief had been scuttled by his own party; knifed in the back by his own friends and family who knew that it was finally time to extract the drunken driver from behind the wheel of a Mack Truck.

The Democrats didnâ€™t win anything; thatâ€™s all hogwash. Bush was buried beneath an avalanche of bad news which was timed to begin with the release of Bob Woodwardâ€™s book â€œState of Denialâ€, followed by the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), Lancetâ€™s Iraqi casualty report, the Mark Foley page fiasco, and a barrage of ethics-scandals, corruption investigations, and intensified coverage of the war. It was a carefully-coordinated coup intended to install â€œadultsâ€ (like Robert Gates) in positions of power, change the policy in Iraq, and remove Rumsfeld and Cheney from office.
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Who says there is no hope for peace in the Middle East? Here's a very heartening development, as bitter enemies reach across the divide to join hands in a common cause. Surely such faith-filled cooperation between the "People of the Book," the "Children of Abraham," the "Fanatical Devotees of a Bronze Age Sky-God Cult" will be the way forward from the current hell of war and strife, leading the world into a new earthly paradise where human beings are not allowed to seek warmth, affection, contact and pleasure from one another, except in the severely restricted circumstances dictated by fanatical devotees of a Bronze-Age Sky-God cult. (The picture at right shows some good godly folk setting fires in the streets, offering up the fragrant aroma of, er, cardboard boxes and wooden crates to pleasure the nostrils of the Most High God.)

Of course, those other People of the Bookers â€“ the Bush-Base American Christianites who have made sexuality the great, throbbing focus of their heated, panting faith â€“ should also be standing shoulder-to-shoulder, cheek-by-jowl, arm-in-arm, thigh-pressed-firmly-but-chastely-to-thigh with their fellow Sky-God cultists in Jerusalem. Perhaps they could send a representative to the protests, some prominent figure of great spiritual power and high political connections, to show that America stands with the rabbis and mullahs in the holy crusade against warmth, affection, contact and pleasure.
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â€œOur enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.â€

â€œIn memory of the victims of September 11th,â€ Bush passed a law that Robyn Blumner of the St. Petersburg Times calls â€œan obscenity against liberty and decencyâ€ and that the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls â€œunconstitutional and un-American.â€ A fitting tribute indeed for the victims whose names have been manipulated by this administration to justify everything from invading Iraq, to the USA PATRIOT Act, to torture, to tax cuts. This â€œhonorâ€ to the victims of September 11th is a national disgrace for which the Bush administration, both houses of Congress, and the media are to blame.

While the White House struggles to convince the nation that the MCA is perfectly legal and essential in order for the CIA to continue â€œone of the most successful intelligence efforts in American history,â€ the true implications of this act must be made clear. Out of the many dubious clauses in the act, the most egregious is the one that eliminates the writ of habeas corpus (the right to challenge the legality of oneâ€™s imprisonment), a fundamental right that dates back to the Magna Carta. In his First Inaugural Address in 1801, Thomas Jefferson said, â€œFreedom of the person under the protection of the habeas corpus I deem [one of the] essential principles of our government." Ironically, the Supreme Court case, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that Bushâ€™s original military tribunals were illegal and made the Congressionally approved MCA necessary, would never have occurred if the MCA had been in effect, as it was petitioned by a detainee.

In the 1972 movie The Candidate, newly (and
surprisingly) elected candidate Bill McKay â€“ played by Robert Redford â€“ asks,
perhaps rhetorically, at the end of the movie, â€œWhat do we do now?â€

That statement/question is possibly an apt analogy to
describe just what happened across this country on Election Day. What do we do now? As a radical progressive I view the
Democratic victories with a note of cautious optimism. As a writer who has frequently criticized the
laissez-faire policies of the Democrats, I believe it is a fair question to put
forth.

In reading the myriad of blogs and news opinions, which
cross my desk via this computer, Iâ€™m struck by the outlook held by many that,
okay, â€œitâ€™s time for payback.â€ Many
writers and so-called progressives feel that it is now time to jump in with all
four feet and begin to look at impeachment proceedings and other assorted
hearings relating to the Repugsâ€™ criminal and moral turpitude of the past many
years. It is extremely difficult to argue
against taking that approach, I wholeheartedly agree that Bush and Company
should be tried, convicted and sentenced to hang along with their (former)
underling Saddam Hussein.
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Attempts to coerce Palestinians into submission have not always manifested themselves in the crude form of a tank, a bullet, the withholding of aid, or the denial of freedom of movement. These efforts were at times more imaginative and shrewd, through the sponsoring and espousing of factionalism, the purchasing of the integrity of a politician, and pressing Palestinians themselves to promote foreign agendas, whether knowingly or unwittingly.

Coupled with the collective punishment endowed on Palestinians by the ever-indifferent international community - Israel's friends in the West and a few Arab and Muslim allies - such creative methods often reaped the desired results, albeit for a little while. I became familiar with one of these attempts recently in London.

It was recently revealed that a few individuals, affiliated with the Hamas government and Hamas-dominated parliament were allowed entry into Britain. News of the visit was first unveiled by the disingenuous Israeli media, which concocted a skewed version of the event, claiming that the delegation met with Israeli 'academicians' in London.
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Hope you were hanging on to something solid Tuesday
night because this country lurched so hard to the
left, half of Washington woke up with a wicked case of
whiplash on Wednesday. No, make that most of
Washington. And all of K Street. And the Republicans
should be grateful. Because if it werenâ€™t for
Democratic persistence they wouldnâ€™t still be able to
file for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The electoral semi tsunami means new Speaker of the
House, Nancy Pelosi is next in line after Dick Cheney
in Presidential succession. In other words, sheâ€™s only
two chicken bones away from the Presidency. And Bush
does not look like a picky eater. Does the term
unchewed pretzel have any meaning here? Not to mention
one loud noise takes Cheney out like that, leading toâ€¦
President Pelosi. And to conservatives, thatâ€™s got to
be scarier than a raw meat bathing suit in a shark
tank.

Since sheâ€™s the human embodiment of what right wing
talk show hosts refer to as (cue theme music from
Psycho) the extreme agenda of San Francisco values,
people all over the country have to be curious as to
exactly what are these alarming values? Glad you
asked. Pull up a chair, plop the kids in front of
â€œCSI: Topekaâ€ and let me tell you about Ms Pelosi and
the den of iniquity she represents and passes as the
city named after Saint Francis of Assisi.

For the who canâ€™t wait to get Nancy Pelosi down on
the ground to shave her head and expose her horns, I
regret to inform you, they arenâ€™t there. Sheâ€™s a
kindly old grandma now, and although she does smile
like some fiend is twisting a knobby pole inserted up
her butt, the ironic part is, in San Francisco, this
supposedly frighteningly extreme liberal is considered
a moderate and is often protested by leftist factions
claiming sheâ€™s too deep in the mainstream and has sold
out. And yeah, there are factions here that believe
the same is true of Fidel.
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So, the Democrats have a majority in Congress. The bad times are over. The
evil ones have been vanquished. Let's go ahead and declare world peace, an
end to global warming, andâ€¹while we're at itâ€¹the cancellation of The
O'Reilly Factor. I mean, what could be better, right? Hmm, we could also
have a Democratic president to go along with a Democratic Senate and
Democratic House. Can you say Hillary Rodham Clinton, boys and girls?
Imagine that: A pinko by the name of Clinton running the White House with a
merry band of liberals calling all the shots in Congress. How grand it would
be...

Well, if you want a good idea of how things may go under the above scenario,
you might want to reflect back upon the years of 1993 and 1994 because
that's when President William Jefferson Clinton was enjoying the "advantage"
of a Democratically-controlled Congress.

In just two years, the notorious liberal managed to abandon his pledge to
consider offering asylum to Haitian refugees, renege on his promise to "take
a firm stand" against the armed forces' ban on gays and lesbians, and back
away from his most high-profile campaign issue: health care. He also signed
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), increased the Pentagon
budget by another $25 billion, fired Jocelyn Elders, dumped Lani Guinier,
ordered the bombing of Iraq and the Balkans, renewed the murderous sanctions
on Iraq, ignored genocide in Rwanda, deported hundreds of thousands of
"illegal" immigrants, and passed a crime bill that gave us more cops, more
prisons, and 58 more offenses punishable by death. (All this came before the
much-hyped Republican "revolution" in 1994. Can someone please explain to me
why the right wing didn't like this guy?)
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It was horribleâ€¦ horrible. We heard a deafening explosion. The earth shook. A fraction of a second later a blizzard of shattered glass flew around us, and then it lay in drifts about our feet.

Then, horrors of horrors we heard the screaming: â€œYou did it! We saw you kids throw that rockâ€!

My close friend Bob and I were branded as terrorists!

I canâ€™t remember the year. Suffice it to say, it was back in my glory days. Bob and I were about thirteen years oldâ€¦ I think. We lived in a middle class, suburban housing development. One broiling summer afternoon, we had been innocently walking down the street carrying boxes of slot car track. We were going to make the biggest layout in Southern California.

What had happened? By chance, just as Bob and I were walking by the Griswold residence, the rear window of Mr. Griswoldâ€™s pride and joy, a shiny Dodge El Puerco, blew out all over the place. Parked halfway in the garage, with the back window exposed to the fierce sun of a Southern California summer, the Griswoldâ€™s Dodge was as explosive as Lucyâ€™s pressure cooker.

Now in that heat, not only would smart people entirely cover their car, but also they would at least leave open the carâ€™s side windows. However, the Griswolds werenâ€™t the sharpest knives in the drawer. That Dodge El Puerco was sealed up tighter than the Green Zone. Well, hot air expands and builds up pressureâ€¦ kind of like Senator â€œBullâ€ Horn. Something had to blow and it sure as hell did. It was spectacular. You would have paid money to see it!
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On Election Day, America took a step that history may show to have been absolutely crucial in saving this republic. At a time when the soul of America has been gravely endangered by our ruling powers, the American people have handed significant power back to the opposition party. Perhaps they will be an effective check on the hitherto unchecked power of this usurpatious presidency.

But winning even an important battle is not winning the war (if you will allow the martial metaphorâ€“ indeed, in a meaningful sense, this IS war).

To continue to roll back these dark forces, it is imperative that the opposition exercise its new powers wisely. In the coming days, I hope to explore here what that may require. I will begin now with some thoughts â€“and a questionâ€“ about what the Democrats should do with their new-found power to conduct investigative hearings.

The big losers on Election Day were of course President Bush and the Republican Party, but there was another loser too: the conspiracy theory that had it that a slick operation run out of Karl Roveâ€™s office, and working in cahoots with the makers of the electronic voting machines increasingly being installed by voting districts around the country would steal the key elections electronically.
I always felt that this conspiracy theory was over the top, and that it moreover was having the pernicious effect of creating massive cynicism about elections that would keep many people from voting who otherwise might have.

There's no way to know how many people didn't go to the polls because they decided that it would be a waste of time, but I sure have heard plenty of people saying, over the past year, "What's the point? The Republicans are going to steal the election anyway."

Well, if they were ever going to steal an election, this would have been the one to do it to. The last thing a criminal president whose popularity is in the cellar needs is a Congress armed with subpoena power in the hands of the opposition party. Surely, if Karl Rove could have tinkered with the numbers on those voting machines in just a few dozen districts, or in states like Montana or Virginia where the margin was a few thousand votes, and where the key voter registrar officials were fellow Republicans, he would have done it.

Instead, we saw dozens of congressional races and a handful of key Senate races switch to the Democrats, and sometimes by the narrowest of margins.